Some people think of tobacco as a drug, whereas others think of it as a therapy — or both. But for the most part, it's hard to find people who think of the tobacco plant in terms of its medical applications. Qiang Chen, an infectious disease researcher at Arizona State University, is one such person. His team of scientists conducted an experiment, published today in PLOS ONE, that demonstrates how a drug produced in tobacco plants can be used to prevent death in mice infected with a lethal dose of West Nile virus. The study represents an important first step...

It can be bought on the Internet in flavors like chocolate and bubble gum—and just a teaspoon could kill a child: The New York Times takes a look at liquid nicotine, the e-liquid used in e-cigarettes, which it describes as a "powerful neurotoxin ... far more dangerous than tobacco." And with good reason: Reports of accidental liquid nicotine poisonings rose 300% from 2012 to 1,351 cases last year, with 2014's figure expected to be double that. The victims, many children under the age of four, can experience vomiting and seizures after being exposed to even a modest amount orally or...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time on Friday used its authority under a 2009 law to remove cigarettes from stores.The FDA is forcing Jash International to stop selling and distributing its line of Sutra Bidi tobacco products in the U.S., and is giving retailers 30 days to pull the products from shelves. ADVERTISEMENT “Existing inventory may be subject to enforcement action, including seizure, without further notice,” the FDA said in a release. “Companies that continue to sell and distribute these products in the United States may be subject to enforcement actions by the FDA.”The FDA said...

A group of Democrats are urging Walmart to follow CVS Caremark and discontinue selling tobacco products. The seven Democrats said Walmart, the nation’s biggest retailer, is also the nation’s biggest seller of cigarettes. “We recognize the legality of selling and profiting from tobacco products; however, Walmart’s position as the nation’s largest retailer of any kind puts your company in a unique position to contribute to the health and well-being of all Americans<” the Democrats said in a letter to the company. The letter’s signatories included Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the number two Democrat in the Senate. The letter stats that...

Seven Democratic lawmakers are pushing to ban the use of electronic cigarettes on the grounds of the Capitol complex as part of a wider campaign against them. Led by the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin (Ill.), the group called on rulemaking committees in both chambers to include e-cigarettes in the Capitol's existing ban on smoking in public places and near building entrances. "Given preliminary [federal] research finding harmful chemicals present in e-cigarettes, measures should be taken to ensure that the public is equally protected from the potential dangers posed by e-cigarettes and their vapor," the lawmakers wrote Tuesday. Via a...

CVS Caremark is kicking the habit of selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 drugstores nationwide as it focuses more on providing health care. The nation's second-largest drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1, a move that will cost about $2 billion in annual revenue but won't affect its 2014 earnings forecast. CVS Caremark leaders say removing tobacco will help them grow the company's business of working with doctors, hospitals and other care providers to improve customers' health.

When CVS Caremark Corp. Chief Executive and President Larry Merlo announced that his drugstore chain would stop selling tobacco products , one of the first to respond was the president of the United States. The speed of the president’s statement indicates that CVS’s decision was likely coordinated with the White House. Every day, countless business decisions are made without any comment from the White House. Something unusual was going on. This is troubling. It gives the appearance of preference for those who curry favor with the powerful, and it squeezes out smaller entrants who can supply innovative products and services...

For the third year in a row, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is poised to deliver a bold, no-holds-barred, anti-tobacco message to the American public. Starting Monday, the agency will launch the 2014 phase of "Tips From Former Smokers" (Tips), an ambitious annual TV, radio and print campaign. As was the case during its first two incarnations, the upcoming Tips campaign, which will last nine weeks, will feature real people speaking in frank and often frightening terms about the high price paid for a lifetime of exposure to cigarettes. "Over 20 million Americans have died because of...

(CNSNews.com) - "We're still a country very much addicted to tobacco," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a news conference last Friday, as she urged communities, schools and businesses to "help make the next generation a tobacco-free generation." A transcript of that news conference runs around 8,300 words, but there isn't a single word about the adverse health effects of marijuana smoking -- even as more states jump on the pot-legalization bandwagon. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana smoke is an irritant to the lungs, and "frequent marijuana smokers can have many of the same...

It's no secret that smoking causes lung cancer. But what about diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction? Fifty years into the war on smoking, scientists still are adding diseases to the long list of cigarettes' harms - even as the government struggles to get more people to kick the habit. A new report from the U.S. Surgeon General's office says the nation is at a crossroads, celebrating decades of progress against the chief preventable killer but not yet poised to finish the job.

WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Following a primetime broadcast of the Golden Globes that featured prominent images of celebrities smoking e-cigarettes, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) today asked NBC Universal and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to take action to ensure that future broadcasts avoid the glamorization of smoking and protect the health of young fans. Electronic cigarettes – or “e-cigs” – have more than doubled in use among high school students in just one year from 2011 to 2012. A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Now it can be told. Now that smoking has been banned everywhere but the dryer vent at your apartment based on the notion that secondhand smoke kills everyone around you, The Journal of the National Cancer Institute can tell us this via Jacob Sullum:

The New York City Council voted Thursday to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public places where smoking is prohibited, including offices, restaurants, hospitals, parks and beaches. “Because many of the E-cigarettes are designed to look like cigarettes and be used just like them, they can lead to confusion or confrontation,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn told CBS New York.

he New York City Council approved legislation Thursday to ban the use of electronic cigarettes from indoor public spaces where smoking is already prohibited. Because many of the e-cigarettes are designed to look like cigarettes and be used just like them, they can lead to confusion or confrontation,” Quinn said

In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary for me to begin this article by affirming that I am not a supporter of smoking, nor am I a paid shill of the tobacco industry. But in our real world–in which a goodly amount of scientific research grant money is awarded on the basis of sensationalized fearmongering results–those who question the validity of such results are often attacked. “Kill the messenger” is hardly a new phenomenon, having been recorded as early as 442 BC in the play Antigone by Sophocles. That said, let’s proceed to the matter at hand: The overblown...

Restaurants and bars would have the option of allowing smoking on patios and other outdoor portions of their businesses under bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the state Legislature. "I think this something businesses should be able to offer if they choose to," said Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, the sponsor of House Bill 5159. "People step outside to smoke now anyway. "I am not a smoker, but to me this is an issue of liberty and property rights," Rep. McMillin continued. "That's why I didn't support the smoking ban legislation when it was in the House. If I was in...

I'm sitting at my desk, looking at a photograph of a gangrenous foot. It is a bloated thing in hues of phlegmatic gray rot, sanguine inflammation, melancholic black bile, and choleric open soresâ€‹Â—â€‹exhibiting all the humors of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Above the photograph, in bold white capitals on a dull, matte background are the words Â“smoking causes peripheral vascular disease.Â” The photograph is helpfully labeled Â“gangrene.Â” Below the photograph, in a bland sans-serif typeface with letters an eighth of an inch high, is Â“Marlboro Red.Â” This is a pack of Australian cigarettes, conforming to...

First the city banned smoking in most public places. Now it’s moving to snuff out the use of smokeless electronic cigarettes as well. The City Council announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing Wednesday on a bill prohibiting the use of the battery-operated, tobacco-free vaporizers in restaurants, offices, parks, beaches and other places where smoking regular cigarettes is not allowed.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- A California ordinance that prohibits smoking in residences with shared walls may be the strictest anti-smoking law in the United States, city officials say. The ban, passed by the city of San Rafael, applies to both owners and renters, ABC News reported Thursday. It covers any multi-family residence with three or more units, including condominiums, co-ops and apartments. The ban took effect Nov. 14.

The town of San Rafael, Calif., has passed a ban on smoking that city officials have called the most stringent in the nation. The new ordinance makes it illegal for residents to smoke in their own homes if they share a wall with another dwelling. The ban applies to owners and renters alike, and it covers condominiums, co-ops, apartments and any multi-family residence containing three or more units. Rebecca Woodbury, an analyst at the San Rafael City Manager's office, helped craft the ban, which took effect Nov.14. "We based it on a county ordinance," she told ABC News, "but we...

Berkeley, Calif., City Councilman Jesse Arreguin has recommended that the city ban smoking in single-family homes. Councilwoman Susan Wengraf, who supports an ordinance to ban smoking in multiunit dwellings, is appalled. "The whole point is to protect people who live in multiunit buildings from secondhand smoke," Wengraf said. Locals have told her they find the notion of a ban in single-family homes scary. "I hope he wakes up and pulls it," she said. Actually, I think Wengraf should want Arreguin's recommendation to stick around. After all, his proposal makes the multiunit ordinance seem reasonable. Arreguin aide Anthony Sanchez tells me...

Calls were made this week for Berlin to follow New York state in raising the legal smoking age to 21. Johannes Spatz of anti-smoking campaign group Forum Rauchfrei told The Local why this will not be easy. Berlin Christian Democrat (CDU) politician Cornelia Seibeld told regional newspaper the BZ this week that Germany should follow New York’s lead and increase the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21. … Spatz agreed, and told The Local that Germany should indeed “look to New York for a positive role model” for dissuading young smokers. “If a person starts under the age of...

Smokers younger than 21 in the nation's biggest city will soon be barred from buying cigarettes after the New York City Council voted overwhelming Wednesday to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to higher than all but a few other places in the United States. City lawmakers approved the bill — which raises from 18 to 21 the purchasing age for cigarettes, certain tobacco products and even electronic-vapor smokes — and another that sets minimum prices for tobacco cigarettes and steps up law enforcement on illegal tobacco sales. "This will literally save many, many lives," said an emotional City Councilman James Gennaro,...

(CNN) -- Use of tobacco in flavors like Dreamsicle and chocolate mint may be a growing problem among teenagers, according to a Centers for Disease Control report. More than two out of every five middle- and high-school students who smoke report using flavored little cigars or flavored cigarettes, according to the report. And the bigger concern may be that the majority of the kids who smoke the flavored cigars -- some 60% -- say they don't plan to quit anytime soon (compared to 49% of all cigar smokers). ~ "Historically what we know from other studies is that flavors can...

Fifteen years after tobacco companies agreed to pay billions of dollars in fines in what is still the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history, it's unclear how state governments are using much of that money. So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement. Among many state governments receiving money, Orange County, Calif., is an outlier. Voters mandated that 80 percent of money from tobacco companies be spent on smoking-related programs, like a cessation class taught in the basement of Anaheim Regional Medical Center. "So go ahead...

Fifteen years after tobacco companies agreed to pay billions of dollars in fines in what is still the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history, it's unclear how state governments are using much of that money. So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement. Among many state governments receiving money, Orange County, Calif., is an outlier. Voters mandated that 80 percent of money from tobacco companies be spent on smoking-related programs, like a cessation class taught in the basement of Anaheim Regional Medical Center. "So go ahead...

European lawmakers are trying to tighten rules governing the multi-billion dollar tobacco market by imposing bigger and bolder warnings on cigarette packs, banning most flavorings like menthol and beefing up regulation of electronic cigarettes. … Treatment of smoke-related diseases costs about €25 billion ($34 billion) a year, and the EU estimates that there are around 700,000 smoking-related deaths annually across the 28-nation bloc. …

Patients are being denied minor treatments because they smoke, The Mail on Sunday has found. In one case, a healthy middle-aged man was told he could not have a ten-minute operation to cut a small benign growth off the side of his head because of his habit. Paul Merrett thought it would be no problem to get the inch-long fatty lump, called a lipoma, removed. … But when he attended King George Surgery in Stevenage, his GP said he could not have the minor operation—which doctors often do under local anesthetic in their own consulting rooms. Mr. Merrett, 46, said:...

President Obama’s plan to raise the federal cigarette tax by 94 cents a pack would put 2 million low and middle-income kids through preschool, a new report has concluded. Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal calls for a near doubling of the tax, from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack, with the proceeds going toward an expansion of early childhood education. Taxes on other tobacco products would increase proportionally, bringing the estimated additional revenue to an estimated $78 billion over the next decade.“Taken together, these two measures would help ensure a future of smart, healthy kids nationwide and in every state,” according...

<p>Top U.S. law enforcement officials urged the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to promptly issue a promised set of rules governing the sale of e-cigarettes, adding to a growing body of legal and public health officials demanding action.</p>
<p>In 2009, the FDA was given authority to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco, although not pipe tobacco, cigars or e-cigarettes. The law allows the FDA to expand its authority over all tobacco products, but it must first issue new regulations. The FDA has said they are in development.</p>

The federal government is spending more than $13 million on studies designed to determine how a variety of groups can learn to quit smoking.This month the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a five-year study to Butler Hospital in Providence, R.I., to examine how exercise can get depressed smokers to stop. The first grant amounts to $581,991.The depressed are not the only ones to receive attention.The agency is currently funding cessation studies for American Indians ($2,899,954); Chinese and Vietnamese men ($424,875); postmenopausal women ($4,151,850); the homeless ($392,322); Korean youth ($94,580); Schizophrenics ($266,554); Brazilian smokers ($174,637); Latino HIV-positive smokers ($223,265); and...

Stop—a ban on menthol cigarettes—in the name of the law! A number of current and former top-ranking law enforcement officials from the tobacco-producing South have blasted a potential menthol cigarette ban as the Food and Drug Administration weighs restrictions on those products, contending that prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime. Their comments to the FDA mirror arguments being made by Big Tobacco companies that have cited the specter of a menthol black market. But tobacco critics and a former top New York state tax official scoffed at those claims, and accused tobacco companies of scare tactics...

Touted as a way to quit smoking, the latest data raise concerns that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, may actually be a gateway for teens into tobacco use. ~snip he said. “Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.” Most addictions to nicotine start at a young age,...suggest that a vast majority of students who use e-cigarettes also turn to conventional tobacco products as well. ~snip Whether e-cigarettes are actually safer than regular cigarettes isn’t clear; a recent study found that e-cigarettes can...

A Brazilian-born researcher who runs minority health programs at a public university in Alabama has convinced the U.S. government to give her $1.5 million to help women quit smoking in her native country. A noble cause indeed, but likely not on the high list of the American taxpayers funding the project. Nevertheless, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s medical research agency, has given the Brazilian researcher, Isabel Scarinci, a five-year, $1.5 million grant to fund her international tobacco-control project. The goal is to better understand “women and their tobacco-related issues” in the South American country, especially in Scarinci’s...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t just want to limit the use of cigarettes – but electronic cigarettes as well. In a newly leaked draft of three tobacco-related bills soon to be voted on by the NYC City Council, the new definition of “tobacco products” under city law would be changed to include e-cigarettes and related components, parts and accessories. If the ordinances pass, the display of e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco would be banned in retail stores. Also, while tobacco and menthol flavored e-cigarettes would still be available in retail stores, all other flavored e-cigarettes could only be sold...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health is funding a program to convince female “light-smokers” in Brazil to kick their bad habit, at a cost to American taxpayers of $653,190. “There is a great need for the development of gender-relevant tobacco control efforts,” the description of the study on the NIH website reads.

First it was bars, restaurants and office buildings. Now the front lines of the "No Smoking" battle have moved outdoors. City parks, public beaches, college campuses and other outdoor venues across the country are putting up signs telling smokers they can't light up. Outdoor smoking bans have nearly doubled in the last five years, with the tally now at nearly 2,600 and more are in the works.

Most current smokers in the U.S. would like to give up smoking. Perhaps as a testimony to their desire to quit, 85% of smokers say they have in fact tried to quit at least once in their lifetime, including 45% who have tried at least three times. ~snip Smokers on average are engaging in a habit they wish they didn't have, and, in fact, the average smoker has attempted to quit at least three times in their lifetime. The difficulty in quitting is attested to by the fact that more than seven in 10 smokers say they are addicted to...

Cigarette smoking hit the lowest point ever recorded among American eighth-graders and high school sophomores and seniors last year, a newly released report shows. Last year, only 5% of high school sophomores said they had smoked cigarettes daily in the previous 30 days, compared with 18% of sophomores who were smoking daily at one point in the 1990s. The numbers have also plunged for eighth-graders and high school seniors, hitting their lowest point since the surveys began. ~snip

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some smokers trying to get coverage next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law may get a break from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable. The Obama administration — in yet another health care overhaul delay — has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that the law says the companies may charge smokers. A fix will take at least a year to put in place.

Summer has officially begun and for many, it's time for sun, sand and swimming. But don't count on lighting up a cigarette while you're at the beach. Over the last few years, you may have noticed more "no smoking" signs have cropped up on parks and beaches. They're part of a larger trend banning smoking at outside, public areas. In fact, smoking has been banned in 843 parks and more than 150 beaches in the last two decades. What beachgoers probably aren't thinking about is the ethics behind these bans, which began taking hold in the early 1990s. Public health...

With just days to go before two of Philadelphia's most prestigious hospitals refuse to hire smokers, the ban has relit a debate about the wisdom of regulating workers' behavior away from the workplace. Both the highly rated University of Pennsylvania Health System, which includes the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, named by US News and World Report as America's top children's hospital this year, will join dozens of hospitals across the country when they implement their policy on Monday, July 1. The move has generated criticism among civil liberties activists, hospital...

The hair of mummies from the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile reveals the people in the region had a nicotine habit spanning from at least 100 B.C. to A.D. 1450. Additionally, nicotine consumption occurred on a society-wide basis, irrespective of social status and wealth, researchers say.

EU ministers of health have reached political agreement to strengthen EU tobacco legislation in an effort to curb the number of smokers. “I do believe that this is truly an important step because it is about stopping the next generation ever getting hooked,” Irish health minsiter James Reilly, chairing the talks, told reporters on Friday (21 June). The ministers endorsed a deal that would ban menthol, fruit, or chocolate flavored cigarettes. Other rules include imposing large graphic warnings. The European Commission had proposed a warning to cover 75 percent of the package but health ministers agreed to 65 percent. Member...

Enlarge image i Don't sit down here and have a smoke with your coffee, Starbucks says. Mark Memmott/NPR Don't sit down here and have a smoke with your coffee, Starbucks says.Mark Memmott/NPR Starbucks is moving its smoking ban outdoors.Starting Saturday, according to signs posted in its more than 7,000 shops across the U.S. and Canada, "the no-smoking policy ... will include outdoor areas.""Smoking will be restricted within 25 feet of the store and within outdoor seating areas," the notices read.AdWeek says that "since smoking bans have swept the nation in the last decade, it's doubtful there will be a...

<p>The City Council voted Tuesday to completely remove a proposed smoking ban from its agenda. After six months of debate, the issue appears to be snuffed, even after the City Council expressed its intent to take a comprehensive smoking ban to a vote of the people during the Nov. 5 election. The ordinance to place the issue on the ballot was up for first reading at the council’s regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, which would have advanced it to a final vote at the June 10 meeting. Mayor Bill Falkner and council members Pat Jones, P.J. Kovac, Barbara LaBass, Jeff Penland and Joyce Starr voted on a motion to remove the item. Before the ordinance was read, Mr. Penland asked the rest of the council to consider leaving the decision to go smoke-free up to property owners. He said he believes the council needs to continue its discussion before making a decision, and perhaps provide incentives for bar owners to go smoke free. “I just can’t vote for an issue that treats the casino different,” he said, later adding that his decision was reinforced after hearing from casino manager Craig Travers, who spoke out against a ban because it would reduce gaming revenue for the city, county and state. Mr. Travers’ statement reinforced what many council members had questioned during the six-month process — whether a ban that excluded the gaming floor really was a matter of public health or of money. Mr. Travers warned the council that if the St. Jo Frontier Casino was forced to go smoke-free, the state would sell the parent company’s license to a community that had no ban in place. He also warned that a smoking ban would decrease revenues by at least 25 percent, and in turn would halt all discussions of moving Downtown. “The whole purpose of gaming is to provide tax revenue to the state,” he said. “ ... This is not a health issue when it comes to the casino. It’s a business issue.” Councilman Byron Myers presented the council with an alternative ordinance that would exclude the casino, but ban smoking in the rest of the community. It’s a compromise he said he is willing to do for the “financial health” of the city and the county. No motion was ever made to consider that ordinance, however. Proponents of a smoking ban said Tuesday the decision will not deter them from their fight for public health. Mary Attebury, a member of Clean Air St. Joe, said the council is damaging itself by flip-flopping on its decisions and not providing what the majority of the community wanted. “Certainly we’re disappointed that the council hasn’t taken and considered the feedback that they received over these past months and done what they should have done,” she said. “There will be a reaction from the community I’m sure. This is not over.” It’s unclear whether the council will take this issue under consideration again.</p>

Ireland is to become the first country in the European Union to ban branding on cigarette packages by using plain packaging and uniform labeling, the government said on Tuesday. All trademarks, logos, colors and graphics will be removed from tobacco products sold in Ireland under the new rules, the Health Ministry said, after the proposal secured backing from the government. Smoking was a central part of Ireland’s pub culture until the country became the first in the world to ban smoking in all enclosed public places, public transport and workplaces in 2004. …

The National Institutes of Health issued a $536,526 grant to the University of Illinois, Chicago, for a two-year program ending in July to study the smoking cessation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population. “The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the benefits of culturally targeted smoking cessation intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender smokers,” the NIH grant description said. “Findings will contribute to the scientific literature on reducing smoking-related health disparities among underserved populations.” The funding began on Sept. 30, 2010 and will conclude on July 31, 2013.